But ignoring the tech-time shift. Forgetting the style itself or how it has changed. Compare like things, her around the 100s to others around the 100s. They've got plenty of emotive looks in 98 99 100 101. In 106 she looks like she's purposely drawn blank and emotionless and such. Almost like she's in sleep state or something.

=)

I know, I agree — I was just teasing.
I remember admiring the way Fred was already capturing emotions in his drawings back then — much like Yuki when she first saw Piro’s drawings. So you won’t catch me saying that Fred’s character drawings of the earlier MT years had blank expressions: I’m quite convinced Ping’s development throughout the story has been — to quote — even more layered.

Fred’s developing technique and experience is, I believe, only one of those layers.

I know, I agree — I was just teasing. I remember admiring the way Fred was already capturing emotions in his drawings back then — much like Yuki when she first saw Piro’s drawings. So you won’t catch me saying that Fred’s character drawings of the earlier MT years had blank expressions: I’m quite convinced Ping’s development throughout the story has been — to quote — even more layered. Fred’s developing technique and experience is, I believe, only one of those layers.

Several times Fred has casually mentioned that in the end Ping and Nanasawa Kimiko would be the "final bosses" of Megatokyo. With Kimiko apparently attempting to usurp Miho's CA role and Ping's T-X like morphing abilities we may well see that come about.

We can see it now. Young girl with magical powers thinks game playing fan boy and ancient goddess are an item, but in reality a waitress with some acting chops and a plot-absorbing robot become the ancient goddess, who can finally find the mortality she has been searching for, trolling MMORPGs looking for the proper catalysts. The waitress and robot meld into one, a grand fusion of human and cybernetics, tasked with keeping stability in Megatokyo alive. The goddess winks out of existence. The two Americans go back home and buy a gas station together, living a normal life. Perhaps until some day, one of their unplugged spare computers stored away powers on, the screen activating in the otherwise silent and dark emptiness....

We can see it now. Young girl with magical powers thinks game playing fan boy and ancient goddess are an item, but in reality a waitress with some acting chops and a plot-absorbing robot become the ancient goddess, who can finally find the mortality she has been searching for, trolling MMORPGs looking for the proper catalysts. The waitress and robot meld into one, a grand fusion of human and cybernetics, tasked with keeping stability in Megatokyo alive. The goddess winks out of existence. The two Americans go back home and buy a gas station together, living a normal life. Perhaps until some day, one of their unplugged spare computers stored away powers on, the screen activating in the otherwise silent and dark emptiness....

There might be no better way to have Piro not win and not lose. The primordial cyberfoil vanishes back into the historic mists from whence she arrived. The art team partner romance lady blends into the story-absorbing simulacrum machine. Which, that morphing Kimiko and Ping into one entity would be at the least interesting to watch. For science.

Of course, we did rather ignore what might have happened to Erika, or more particularly, to E&L. If Largo and Piro end up unceremoniously launched through the gapping errors (the notspace in 1350) back to the US on a free instantaneous one way ticket, perhaps Erika's insanity goes away too, or maybe nobody cares about them and forgets them without any actual functioning prime material plane Analogue around, or even Erika has to stay to help take care of the kimikpingo. Whichever way, somebody else's fanciful problem.

Also the more spiritual beings know more about Kimiko than she realises or lets know of herself (Meimi when Kimiko chased drunk Largo, Mugi when Kimiko met her in CoE).

Ofc it could even end as in my fanfic, though I doubt it...

But given the Kotone x Miho x Kimiko dynamic, what if thanks to Piro and Kimiko, Miho and Kotone, the story and the life, are reunited?
Would Miho really want it to happen? She can't stand Kotone already.
But here, Kimiko and Piro will be working to save Kotone's version of events.
All the while while Dom is funding it.
Is it for Dom to defeat Miho?
Kimiko has her own score to settle with Dom, and Piro actually ... What he could do to save Miho again? He could royally fsck up his drawing job... So that the sad story of Kotone's later life does not repeat itself, if no one likes that ending...

Ed may be gone, face elbowed, squished by Tetris block and bombed. But Dom may still come back.

What if Ping's body is mirroring those fan boys that helped her search for Miho?

I was just talking with the Eldest Bratling about the changes in Ping, and she was suggesting something similar. Said that since she's a dating sim mirror, maybe the exposure to so many of those fanboys at once, (who probably play a lot of dating sims themselves, and carry their computers/gaming equipment with them, and probably had a lot of dating sims running on said equipment,) might have scrambled the part of her programming that controls and changes her looks according to who is playing her, and what game is running; and that this was the result. Poor Ping. :/

There might be no better way to have Piro not win and not lose. The primordial cyberfoil vanishes back into the historic mists from whence she arrived. The art team partner romance lady blends into the story-absorbing simulacrum machine. Which, that morphing Kimiko and Ping into one entity would be at the least interesting to watch. For science.

Hmmm. There are at least 2 or 3 dangers on the way... any of which can change the outcome or at least throw on an alternate path...
flashback from 1111, 1122 - depending on who Miho thinks is winning - Largo I think has just touched Erika's soft spot the wrong way (I don't trust y00r m1n10n5);
But Kimiko has not long ago learned about just how far Piro was into Miho, and though it looks right now like they are heading for t3h wi|\| (but somehow Piro was reluctant for a potential one-on-one), she still doesn't actually know about the little polygon bump... this one may take some drama to unravel...
we still don't know what Yaku has to say to Miho...
what story are they going to come up with to hide Miho ... or not ?
Also (Dom ? Sega?) is financing the Sight project... historically in real life it was when Sega almost went under. (I just looked it up on Wikipedia) It looks like it is in Miho's interest, that her old story dies by getting a bad 'bad ending' that no one likes. The Dom-age really did not do Sega any favors, looks like
edit hahaha, just had an afterthought: maybe it's Kimiko who finally will make Dom go under - by having Sega shed their 'black ops' due to mounting debt, he won't be able to respawn any more....

Largo was detecting a formidable power in Kimiko before... a potential for catastrophe. Not entirely clarified by the animate event, imo.
Interestingly (or not?) Largo wasn't detecting anything as dangerous in Ping, she's just a plastic toy / robot to him all this time...